What stops you from reading someones work?

[Xiao Xianyu]

Lack of summary I agree with. If I have no idea what the story is about, then why would I feel any need to read it? Even listing what genre it is would be a step in the right direction.

Spelling and typos? If there's one every paragraph, then yes. That's extreme, and sometimes you have no idea what the person meant to actually say. So in that case, I may run. But if there's a few, I'll correct them about it, but I'm not that bothered.

Why does everyone hate long stories? The longer the better! I'm more bothered if I click in and the work is five whole sentences, or - more often - one whole scene. Gah, give me some meat on the bones, please! I'm starving here. And so's the story. I'm far more likely to click the back button on a post that contains one scene. I'm here for a story, not a drabble. Unless it's a post of drabbles, and I know what I'm getting into. That's okay. But one drabble? Couldn't you atleast give me two to work with?

This is a weird one, but characterizations that don't make sense. Gosh, that irritates me no matter where I'm reading it. If "Billy" come from the chippy family of Apple Pieness, why is he emo enough to drag the whole world down? And there's no explanation for it? He's just like that? Back button, my savior.  

[All Purpose Muling Device]

Xiao Xianyu

Lack of summary I agree with. If I have no idea what the story is about, then why would I feel any need to read it? Even listing what genre it is would be a step in the right direction.

Spelling and typos? If there's one every paragraph, then yes. That's extreme, and sometimes you have no idea what the person meant to actually say. So in that case, I may run. But if there's a few, I'll correct them about it, but I'm not that bothered.

Why does everyone hate long stories? The longer the better! I'm more bothered if I click in and the work is five whole sentences, or - more often - one whole scene. Gah, give me some meat on the bones, please! I'm starving here. And so's the story. I'm far more likely to click the back button on a post that contains one scene. I'm here for a story, not a drabble. Unless it's a post of drabbles, and I know what I'm getting into. That's okay. But one drabble? Couldn't you atleast give me two to work with?

This is a weird one, but characterizations that don't make sense. Gosh, that irritates me no matter where I'm reading it. If "Billy" come from the chippy family of Apple Pieness, why is he emo enough to drag the whole world down? And there's no explanation for it? He's just like that? Back button, my savior.

Pretty sure I could just paste this and it would be my answer, word for word.  

[Raincrow]

Giyari

Raincrow

Length is a definite factor. Unless I've specifically agreed to read and critique someone's writing for the long-haul, I don't normally like having to read more than a few pages. (This obviously doesn't hold for when I'm reading novels for pleasure.)

Text walls make me abandon hope. I also hate seeing really badly formatted pieces or stories with atrocious grammar. If I have a print copy of something, I can just mark their grammar all to hell with a red pen, but it's not as simple to point out mistakes over the internet.

Cliche dialogue will also turn me off, as will people saying "aye" in a fantasy setting. I've avoided reading whole books just because I skimmed through and noticed characters saying "aye" too much. Call it residual damage from reading the Inheritance books.

Whats wrong with 'aye'? XD Just a question dont worry I'm not getting at you (^_^). I personally, being Scottish, use 'aye' almost daily as a slang substitute for 'yes/yeah'.

Depending on the book and setting It can add to the feel of the book, say one of your characters has a Scottish accent, something that fits well in a fantasy setting and 'ye olde' languages for commoners. would it still put you off? I've read a book written entirely in glaswegian XD was pretty funny when I geot into it. The auther was Christopher Brookmyre incase you wanna look it up razz the book was called "A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away"

In most fantasy novels I've read where "aye" is used, it's just a lazy way for the author to say, "Oh look, this culture is different from ours! They use a different word for 'yes'! Isn't that crazy?" They then proceed to do very little else to make the "local" dialect different in any way. More often than not, it's a sign of the author being lazy.

And, as I said before, I've come to hate most instances of writers trying to use "old English" dialects and "aye" due to Christopher Paolini doing it so poorly it just kind of killed it for me forever. Except in the case of Corambis, where the author actually researched and permutated the Elizabethan dialect for her own use. That was kind of brilliant.  

[sssfryan]

sessqueen

if someone just
doesn't know how to write.

i know, that kind of sounds mean,
but if run-on sentences,
poor punctuation,
improper grammar and
no use of capitalization
run amok, then i won't
even bother.

This. A friend of mine at one point wanted me to read a story he was trying to write but it was just unreadable to me. The story itself was good but there wasn't a single sentence that didn't have something wrong with it.  

[Giyari]

Raincrow

Giyari

Raincrow

Length is a definite factor. Unless I've specifically agreed to read and critique someone's writing for the long-haul, I don't normally like having to read more than a few pages. (This obviously doesn't hold for when I'm reading novels for pleasure.)

Text walls make me abandon hope. I also hate seeing really badly formatted pieces or stories with atrocious grammar. If I have a print copy of something, I can just mark their grammar all to hell with a red pen, but it's not as simple to point out mistakes over the internet.

Cliche dialogue will also turn me off, as will people saying "aye" in a fantasy setting. I've avoided reading whole books just because I skimmed through and noticed characters saying "aye" too much. Call it residual damage from reading the Inheritance books.

Whats wrong with 'aye'? XD Just a question dont worry I'm not getting at you (^_^). I personally, being Scottish, use 'aye' almost daily as a slang substitute for 'yes/yeah'.

Depending on the book and setting It can add to the feel of the book, say one of your characters has a Scottish accent, something that fits well in a fantasy setting and 'ye olde' languages for commoners. would it still put you off? I've read a book written entirely in glaswegian XD was pretty funny when I geot into it. The auther was Christopher Brookmyre incase you wanna look it up razz the book was called "A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away"

In most fantasy novels I've read where "aye" is used, it's just a lazy way for the author to say, "Oh look, this culture is different from ours! They use a different word for 'yes'! Isn't that crazy?" They then proceed to do very little else to make the "local" dialect different in any way. More often than not, it's a sign of the author being lazy.

And, as I said before, I've come to hate most instances of writers trying to use "old English" dialects and "aye" due to Christopher Paolini doing it so poorly it just kind of killed it for me forever. Except in the case of Corambis, where the author actually researched and permutated the Elizabethan dialect for her own use. That was kind of brilliant.

AHH! "Aye that be true me lovely!" (sounds kinda pirate o_0 )
XD Nah just kiddin razz But I get what you mean, theres no point in doin it if you're not gonna change the rest of the language too.  

[-S-Dancing_Star-S-]

I don't read a story if I get bored, if it's predictable, or if the theme isn't interesting
I love reading long books, the tiny ones go too fast, chances are if I'm picking between a long story or a short story, I'll go with the long one. It's also easier to guess the ending if the story is too short. I like some surprises on the way.  

[Andirigible]

I have a pretty short attention span, so long pages of straight text is difficult unless I'm really interested. Also small font is irritating. And too-big font.

Books do a better job of keeping my attention because I have to flip the page, and it's like a break in text.

Paragraph breaks like the ones I have in this post help a lot when reading online.

That's why I like FictionPress: you can pick your font size, and you can put up chapters of whatever length you feel is appropriate. Plus you can bookmark stories and stuff.

Length and attention spans aside, I absolutely will not read a story if it is apparent that the author either cannot find the shift key or is too lazy to use it. Same for most kinds of punctuation. Misspellings of basic words put me off (the occasional letter-switch typo has ceased to irritate me too much), and I cannot abide stories that begin in a cliche or boring style.

Plot-twists are good.

And on FictionPress, if the author doesn't seem like he or she is going to update the story ever and it just ends, I'm not going to start. I abhor unresolved cliffhangers (I am mentally firing lethal projectiles in Christopher Paolini's general direction for his as-of-yet lack of closure to the very intense cliffhanger that is Brisingr).  

[Kenutsu Yasashiku]

I tend to shy away from the longer ones here in the guild because I have a huge time deficit. I usually get up at 3 am for work and on average do not get home till about 4 pm. Then if I am not later I only have a few hours before bed.

In that 3 hour span, maybe more or less, I have many things I wish to do. I try to write more for my story, maybe play a video game, perhaps try to play some games with my wife or watch some show or movie. Sometimes, I end up sitting with no idea what I want to do because I do not have a lot of time to do it. sweatdrop  

[The Silver Sundae]

Small font size gives me a headache. I'm also a picky reader. If I don't see a proper paragraph (IE, I only see some one lines and so on), then chances are that I won't read it. That said, I'm more of a one shot-ter. I don't like reading chapter after chapter after chapter. I'll read it if it is just one piece with some formatting that won't make my head explode.  

[FoxyNightPrincess]

i like a summary so i know what i'm getting into. i'm slightly picky and only like fiction geared more towards fantasy. i don't really like romance books so i stay away from those. or if it's too long i lose interest sometimes. or i'll start reading it and lose interest within the first few lines if it's not what i like.  

[Lisiana]

If the summary doesn't interest me, or is cliché, then there is a very small chance that I'd read a story, or don't bother reading it at all.

Text walls? Yes, I hate them too. But if the story is good, I'll go through the torment of reading them. Misspellings? Grammatical errors? I'll let it slide; but if there's too many of them in the same chapter, paragraph, even in a sentence ( rofl just kidding), I'd rather read something else.

If the story keeps my interest up, I'm okay with long stories; but if it just drags on and on and on (like a fanfiction story I read last year that reached somewhere 50-70+ chapters, I think), I'd stop, no matter how interested I was in that story. Short stories are more preferable, though.  

[exdraghunt]

I generally don't read something that doesn't have a basic summary (nothing too complicated, just a couple sentances explaining whats gonna go down)

Double skipping lines to break up paragraphs actually doesn't bother me much on the internet. I'll read a story with or without them.

What does begin to get to me is the presence of a significant amount of grammatical errors and poorly constructed sentences.

With length, the more the better. If I see multiple chapters, I'm like "Yes!" I read one-shots, but I tend to get to the end and wibble for more because they don't take as long to read. (generally)  

[j3ll0_m0nk3y]

I prefer one-shots, because they tend to be more well-written. All the loose ends are tied up. The only way I can really describe a good one-shot is it's like a candy bar - delicious, and you can finish it in one sitting. That's not to say I can't read longer pieces; I just need to get really interested in the story.

Other than grammar and sentence structure (and, of course, giant, eye-injuring walls of text), the thing that really turns me off is plot. So many people recycle the same plots, and I can usually tell from their writing that they're either really pretentious about their writing, or they're trying way too hard. I prefer a natural writing style.

Genre also has some significance. I prefer humor, and absolutely hate romance. It's never done well, and the characters are almost always inconsistent.  

[just call me butt]

I personally like one-shots, or maybe stories shorter than four pages at the least. Because it strains my eyes*, and it would take such a long time printing it. And I guess I don't have much time, and don't want to waste my time on only one thing. Ya know?

*Do you ever get that feeling? When you stare at the computer for too long and it hurts to close your eyes? Agh. I hate that feeling.

I don't like people who don't have proper grammar and spelling too. When I see that the paragraph started with a not capitalized letter, I'd press the Back button. I mean, come on. ((Unless I'm a beta-reader of it.))

I don't like when people don't put spaces between paragraphs. It's confusing.

Mostly, I just don't like pressing a link to another site--I mean, come on!!! Nobody does that anymore, buddy!

And really, and honestly, I just don't like reading other people's work unless they are within my preferences and are recommended. Or when I'm a beta-reader. or when I'm not in the mood.  

[Glaciofluvial]

I dislike it very much when I am deceived by a clever summary, proper looking formatting and lovely syntax only to be slapped in the face with a lengthy, overly-descriptive introduction that focuses on every aspect of the main character's physical and/or mental attributes.

My main desires from authors, especially for the introduction of their story, is for them to show me, not tell me. They should also have an intriguing introduction that doesn't tell me more than I need to know about the character(s). I like to get to know the characters I read about bit by bit and piece things together by observing/analyzing the words they say and the actions they take. It's like unraveling a mystery and keeps me wanting more. At least for me, no mystery means little to no desire to keep reading.